Sketch art of Terri-Lynne McClintic testifying Tuesday at the murder trial of Michael Rafferty in London, Ont. Rafferty, 31, is charged with first degree murder in connection with the death of Victoria (Tori) Stafford. In April 2010, McClintic pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the case and was sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole for 25 years.Alex Tavshunsky
/ For National Post

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LONDON, Ont. — Days after the murder of eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford, Terri-Lynne McClintic promised her lover, who is on trial for the little girl's death, that if they were caught she would save him by admitting to killing the Ontario schoolgirl alone.

"I said I would take the fall for everything. I would say that it was all me," the 21-year-old told a jury Wednesday at the first-degree murder trial of Michael Rafferty.

"That he had more to lose than I did, that he had a life, a job, there was more for him and I was just . . . I really had nothing."

It was McClintic's second day on the stand as a Crown witness in the high-profile trial.

In 2010, she entered a surprise guilty plea to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison for killing the young girl, known to her friends and family as Tori.

The Grade 3 student was last seen on her way home from Oliver Stephens Public School on April 8, 2009 in Woodstock, Ont., a small city southwest of Toronto.

Tori's remains were found three months later buried under a rock pile in a rural area near Mount Forest, Ont., about 135 kilometres away.

Rafferty, 31, was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault following his arrest in May 2009.

His trial began on March 5.

In a wavering voice, McClintic told the court the couple had concocted this plan, along with others, following her arrest for a breach of probation on another matter on April 12, 2009 — four days after Tori was murdered.

She and Rafferty would often speak to each other on the phone while she was held at a youth detention centre in London, Ont.

He also visited her on a number of occasions and during her appearances at the Woodstock courthouse.

She said Rafferty kept trying to ensure that she knew what taking the blame for the murder actually meant.

McClintic said he asked her: "You realize what that would consist of right?" before adding that he "always wanted conjugal visits."

She repeatedly told him not to "worry about it" because she was just an "18-year-old junkie."

"The last time I saw him, I will never forget what he said to me," she told the 12-person jury. "I remember touching his face and he looked up and almost laughed at me (saying) 'You will do anything for a little bit of love eh?' "

The two even flirted with the idea of an escape.

"We talked about me trying to leave . . . just taking off, the two of us," said McClintic. "We could be the next Bonnie and Clyde."

Rafferty, dressed in a grey suit, often shook his head and even scoffed during her testimony. The majority of the time, he could be seen writing notes down onto a yellow legal pad.

In a clearer and more coherent voice than on her first day of testimony on Tuesday, McClintic told the court Rafferty had also "instructed" her on an alibi if the police accused her of being the woman in a white jacket who was last seen walking with Tori outside the school. In one scenario, she was to tell the police the two went window-shopping in Oakville, Ont., and visited a Fred Astaire dance studio because Rafferty had been interested in taking lessons.

In another, she was to admit that she didn't know Tori but had met her on a previous occasion with her dog. She said she was told to tell police that day she ran into the blond-haired girl and walked with her but parted ways shortly after. In the third scenario, she was to say the two picked up the girl but dropped her off in a green sedan.

When she lured Tori into Rafferty's dark Honda Civic parked near the school that day, she said, Rafferty expressed his disappointment in her choosing Tori.

"He made a comment that she wasn't young enough," said McClintic. "Just that it should've been a younger person."

As they drove out of Woodstock and headed northwest on the highway that evening, she described how uncomfortable the little girl was because she was forced to lie on the floor of the back seat covered with a coat.

At one point, Tori begged to be let go.

"She asked if she could go home," said McClintic. "She said she wouldn't tell anybody, that she'd just tell her mom that she went to her cousin's house to play."

Earlier, McClintic described for the court how the pair planned to cover their tracks by first agreeing they "should never speak of this again."

She told the court she and Rafferty placed the murder weapon, a hammer, into a garbage bag along with her white jacket and his T-shirt, which both contained blood. The bags also contained empty water bottles, Tori's clothing and her Bratz backpack.

The two then drove to a car wash in Cambridge, Ont., where they threw this "evidence" into a Dumpster. They cleaned the outside and inside of the car, and later tossed their shoes onto Highway 401, she said.

McClintic also took a knife and cut out pieces of the car's back seat where there were still stains, she said. The pair changed into new clothing before returning to Woodstock that evening. Police have recovered both the shoes and the new clothing.

McClintic said the two didn't speak much during the ride home because she was still high on drugs and acting "spaced out."

It also emerged in court Wednesday that following Tori's death McClintic handed out flyers of the missing girl with a neighbour.

On Tuesday, she surprised the court by admitting that she, not Rafferty, was the one who delivered the fatal hammer blows that killed Tori.

She said she remembered hearing screams coming from the car as she watched Rafferty allegedly rape the little girl. These screams brought up rage that she had buried about her own childhood molestation, said McClintic.

After she killed the girl, the two placed her in garbage bags and buried her under a nearby rock pile, she said.

McClintic said Wednesday she repeatedly lied to police about being the one who wielded the hammer because it was something she couldn't admit.

In a document she wrote to her lawyer about a month following her arrest, she confessed to everything but that.

"(The document) was what I wanted to be true. The truth that I wanted to be . . . that I told myself was true," she said dabbing her eyes.

"All of it was true up to the point of the murder. Everything that was not true in the document was that it wasn't Mr. Rafferty who committed the murder — it was myself."

Once she was arrested, she helped police try to locate Tori's body by drawing them diagrams of the crime scene and going on ride-alongs in a helicopter.

McClintic even wrote an apology letter to Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, "because it was the right thing to do."

Ontario Superior Court Justice Thomas Heeney cautioned jurors Wednesday that they should only consider McClintic's testimony as "part of a narrative" and not give weight to her inconsistent recollections of the events.

"There might be a temptation for you to conclude that because Ms. McClintic said something on at least one occasion then said the same thing on subsequent occasions that it is more likely to be the truth," he said. "That would be an improper and an illogical conclusion for you to draw."

McClintic told the court she and Rafferty met in Woodstock, Ont., in February 2009. Their relationship consisted of driving around, having sex and buying OxyContin pills.

On a number of these rides, she recalled, he pointed out specific houses where single mothers lived and expressed how easy it would be go in, tie them up and "take them." He also had spoken to her about whether she thought it was "weird" if he asked her to kidnap someone.

On several occasions, he would drive by schools but at the time she didn't make anything of it, McClintic testified.

The trial has been adjourned until Friday so the court can hear a number of legal arguments which are under an automatic publication ban.